Chapter 5
WYLDER
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Neo’s question is suspicious. It’s kind of galling, given all the shit he’s pulled over the past few months.
“You’ll work for me.” I edge even closer to the bed, my knees almost brushing against Neo’s. “Fill in while my assistant is inconveniently gone.”
“Do we need to have another biology lesson?” Neo taunts. “She can’t plan when she gives birth, tiny-dick man.”
I don’t know which irritates me more—what he’s implying about my intelligence, or that damned nickname.
I do know. It’s the nickname. It’d be so easy to prove him wrong…but that’ll never happen. But I also like that he has a bit of his spark back. That I was right to haul him upstairs and threaten him.
“Stop deflecting. You’re going to work for me, and that’s final.”
“Fuck no.”
“You’re basically doing it already,” I counter, aiming for a softer approach. “You’ve been answering my emails for weeks now.”
“Because you’re terrible at it. You don’t even include a greeting or a signature.”
“Greetings are a waste of words. The email tells you who it’s from, so a signature is not needed.”
His tongue darts out and wets his lips. “I need more than that. Ask me, Wylder. No, beg.”
My monster croons.
“Will that make you agree?”
“Probably not.” He shrugs breezily. “You won’t know until you roll the dice.”
I work my jaw back and forth, not wanting to give in, but knowing I must. If I don’t do this, he’ll leave and…well, we can’t have that.
“Please.” I drop my voice low, my teeth grinding. I may not understand emotions, but manipulation? That, I’m familiar with. “I need you, Neo.”
Neo’s breath hitches, and my monster roars in triumph. His throat bobs before he speaks again. “But why? Why do you care?”
Really, it’s an excellent question. Why do I care? I could just lock Neo in this room and refuse to let him leave. Why am I going to the trouble of suggesting a plan that’ll keep him closer to me?
Because that way, you can keep an eye on him.
Yes. He won’t be able to get up to as much mischief if he’s working at my side.
Sure. That’s what I meant.
“Because I do need you,” I say. It’s near impossible to let my guard down, but I try.
Cade and Ansel are right—I made this mess, even if I didn’t mean to, and only I can clean it up.
“My emails are piling up faster than I can answer them. My schedule’s a mess.
I’ve missed three meetings in the past week, and that’s before I get started on what’s required for The Firm. ”
Neo sniffs. “Then hire yourself a temporary assistant.”
Part of me expected Neo to trip over himself in his haste to spend more time annoying me. The unsettled feeling from earlier is back again, threatening to drive me crazy. “I don’t want a random person. I want you.”
He flops back on the bed, his face wooden as he stares at the paneled ceiling. “No one wants me. Not even you. You’ve told me often enough.”
I hesitate. How do I proceed here? I can’t lie to him. But I also can’t let him leave. “I need you. Not someone else. You. The Umbra Syndicate has gone quiet, and that’s not a good sign. If anything, it makes me more wary. I need your hacking skills as well as your organizational ones.”
“Use Ansel.”
I tap my fingers against my legs. “Please. We both know Cade isn’t letting Ansel within three miles of anything to do with them.”
Neo sits up slowly. “So Ansel’s too precious to risk, but I’m not?”
I take a moment to think over my words. Maybe if I’d done that in the kitchen, we wouldn’t be in this situation. It’s odd—no one else brings out this side of me. Only the guy sitting on the bed. It’s dangerous. I don’t like it. “I would never let anything happen to you, Neo.”
“You mean The Firm wouldn’t.”
“I wouldn’t,” I repeat. “You’re under my care, just like everyone else in this house.”
“So let me move out, and then you won’t have to worry about me.”
My nostrils flare at his insolence. I’m not mad though, not really. Not when baiting me finally has the spark back in Neo’s eyes. “Out of the question.”
“One might think you enjoy what I put you through,” Neo drawls, one of his feet going up the inside of my thigh again. I don’t let myself react. “It’s the only reason to keep me here that makes sense.”
His foot falls suddenly as he straightens and stretches. “Well, maybe it’s not enough for me. It’s been fun, but I’m done with anyone making me feel unwelcome.”
I don’t let myself think. Or rather, the monster doesn’t. It has Neo pinned against the bed before he can fully rise from it. My thighs are straddling his hips. My fingers are around his throat—not strangling him, just holding him in place. “No. You will not leave.”
“There you are,” he breathes, his pupils dilating. “I’ve been wondering where you’ve been.”
“You’re not leaving,” I repeat with a snarl.
“Isn’t this better?” Neo croons. He lifts his hand to cup my cheek. “It’s not healthy to hide who you really are all the time.”
“I’m not hiding. I’m protecting people.”
“Who?”
“Everyone.”
Neo hums. His thumb is stroking along my jawline in the most distracting fashion. It’s really unhelpful.
“See, I think that’s what you truly believe, what you’ve been made to believe by your father. But I know it’s not true.”
That’s because he doesn’t know how dark my mind can get. The sinister thoughts and imaginings the monster has. “It is.”
“Nope,” he says. “It’s not. If it were because you’re afraid of hurting others, you wouldn’t let your guard down around me. You’d never hurt me.”
“You shouldn’t trust me so blindly. You have no idea what I’m capable of.”
“Say it, then,” he demands, his fingers tightening on my jaw. “Say you can see yourself hurting me. Out loud. Looking me in the eye.”
My throat bobs, but I stay silent.
“Exactly.” Neo nods in satisfaction. “You keep yourself buttoned up, not out of fear of hurting others, but because you might get hurt.”
I blink and then murmur, “I don’t understand.”
There’s no pity in his gaze as he holds mine. “It’s a defense mechanism. If no one knows the real you, they can’t hurt the real you. You can’t be rejected if no one truly knows you.”
I frown. “That’s preposterous. I’m close to my brothers.”
“Yes, but do they know the real you? Do they know that there’s a side of you that you hide from them?”
I’m silent once again, but my brain is loud. It’s taking Neo’s every word and trying to find a way to reject it. To prove it false.
But it can’t.
Fuck.
“Then there’s Candace,” Neo continues, his eyes flashing. “You can’t honestly tell me you actually like her.”
“She’s my girlfriend,” I say stiffly. It’s the one lie I’ll continue to hold on to where Neo’s concerned.
The little brat just smirks. “If that’s true, why are you grinding your erection against mine?”
What?
My gaze moves slowly down our bodies to where they meet. Holy fuck, he’s right. I’m hard. Hard and grinding against Neo’s equally hard length. I hadn’t even noticed I was doing it, too caught up in our words to pay any attention.
But I’m paying attention now.
What the fuck is happening?
I jump off the bed like I’ve been doused in ice water. Rearranging myself in my pants, I refuse to look at the way he’s sprawled on the bed. “This doesn’t mean anything. I’m straight.”
Neo props himself up on his elbows, his gaze fixed amusedly on the bulge in my pants. “Sure you are.”
This should be where I tell him to leave, that I’ll arrange a secure safe house for him, surrounded by bodyguards. That I’ll provide for all his worldly wants and needs, but in a location far away from me.
Instead, what I say is, “I’ll expect you in my office at nine a.m. sharp tomorrow.”
Turning on my heel, I make it all the way to the door before Neo speaks. “Wylder.”
I freeze, my hand on the doorknob. “Yes?”
There’s a scuffling sound followed by light footsteps. I don’t need to turn to know that Neo is right behind me. I can feel the heat of him. “If you make me stay, I won’t back off. All the bullshit I’ve been pulling, it’ll continue.”
My jaw twitches. “Why?”
“Because I love to see this other side of you.” His fingers trail down my spine, sparks left in their wake. “The real you. Who you are, instead of who you’re pretending to be. One day, you might even thank me for it.”
And one day, I might wake up with a beard and a massive vegetable garden. “I don’t think so.”
“Regardless, I don’t think I can stop.” His fingers reach the top of my pants, and I have to suppress a shiver. “You bring it out of me. The urge to…misbehave.”
I turn his words over in my mind, analyzing them. “Because you want to be punished?”
He hums happily. “Maybe.”
Suddenly, I have visions of how I could do it. Putting him over my knee and turning his pale skin a cherry red. Tying him to the bed with knots he’d never escape from. Forcing him to his knees and making him choke on my—
I cut that thought off abruptly. “You don’t know what you’re playing with.”
“Yes, I do.” His fingers leave my body, and I have to bite back a groan of disappointment. “You’re the one in the dark right now. Don’t worry, though. You’ll catch up eventually.”
Neo is fourteen minutes late.
Not that I’m counting.
No, I’m trying desperately not to think about the dream that woke me at three a.m. It was different from the usual nightmares of my father torturing me.
But I’m not sure this one was better, because I woke to wet boxers, like I was a fucking hormonal teenager again.
Worse, I was still hard. Like the one orgasm hadn’t been enough to dispel the fantasy my mind had conjured.
Neo naked, his lithe body arching up, his moans muffled and gagged.
The way I hovered over him, his ankles over my shoulders, my cock tunneling in and out of his tight little hole…
One orgasm hadn’t been enough. Two hadn’t either. After three, my cock finally stayed soft, but there was no hope of more sleep.
Needless to say, by the time my door opens, I’m on edge. Neo’s not. He saunters in, whistling a tune. He’s wearing torn jeans and a tight t-shirt.